Generally speaking, money transfers are real-time transactions in that a transaction begins when a sender initiates the transaction at the time the money is to be sent to a receiving party. For example, a money transfer may be utilized in an emergency setting such as when a receiving party has an immediate need for funds. In such a transaction, a sender initiates a money transfer transaction with a money transfer service, such as with a local agent located within a MoneyGram® location. When the transaction information is gathered and the structure of the transaction is finalized, the sender provides the funds to a money transfer agent at or before the time that the funds of the transaction are actually transferred.
Once the funds are received at the time of the transaction, the agent may then provide a transaction code or some other form of transaction identifier to the sender. The sender will then provide the transaction code or identifier to the receiver. With this code the receiver may enter an agent location and complete the transaction and receive the transferred funds.
In some instances a money transfer transaction may be configured to send from a sending party directly to a bank account of a receiving party. Typically such transactions require very accurate target account information to be given by the sending party. For example, the sending party may need to provide a receiver's name, account information and/or name of a destination bank. The need for such information may be problematic when a sending party does not have precise information (e.g. a full formal name of the receiving party, precise name for a receiving bank, etc.), or when a receiving party may not want to provide the information to either the sending party or a money transfer service.
For a money transfer service, conducting a money transfer transaction efficiently is a primary concern. Inefficiency in a money transfer transaction causes additional administrative cost and potentially causes customer dissatisfaction. For transactions that are directed to a receiving party account, in the event that a portion of the transaction information is missing or inaccurate, inefficiencies arise wherein resources of the money transfer service will be required in order to complete or cancel the transaction.